Thursday, March 30, 2000

Sweetheart Gala garners biggest donation ever

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Aranka (left) and Sam Kane recently donated $10,000 to the Volunteer Center of the Coastal Bend's upcoming Sweetheart Gala, which will honor Chris and Robert Adler.

As the countdown began for the Volunteer Center of the Coastal Bend's annual Sweetheart Gala, executive director Gilna Nance had on her worry hat, as usual.
   "Whenever you plan a special event like this, you worry about everything," said Nance about the center's biggest fund-raiser of the year. "Will the weather be nice, the food good and the sponsors help?"
   This year, with one simple phone call and a $10,000 donation, Sam Kane, founder of Sam Kane Beef Processors Inc., was able to put Nance's mind at ease about her annual sponsor search.
   Gala's largest donation
   Kane's donation is the largest ever made to the gala, which raises money for center programming, ranging from volunteer recruitment to sponsoring seminars for nonprofit agencies on marketing, fund-raising and grant writing.
   "I am a firm believer in helping people," said Kane, who with his wife arrived in the United States and settled in Corpus Christi in 1948. Kane, a native of Czechoslovakia, resisted the Nazis during World War II as an underground fighter; many of his relatives perished in the Holocaust. His wife, Aranka, is a concentration camp survivor.
   "I thank God every day that we came to America," Kane said. "The opportunities here can be found nowhere else in the world and so we want to share some of what we have with charities citywide and worldwide that can be of help to people in need."
   The fourth annual gala, on April 27 at the Omni Bayfront Hotel, honors business owners and community leaders Chris and Robert Adler. Among their many endeavors, Chris Adler is a Del Mar College regent and Robert Adler is on the executive board of B'Nai Israel Synagogue.
   Kane's donation comes as no surprise to family and friends, including Barry Abels, executive director of the Jewish Community Council, also a Volunteer Center board member and volunteer.
   "They are good friends and admirers of the Adlers and the contributions they make to this community," Abels said. "The Kanes have for many years been generous in their philanthropy and this recent donation is the largest single gift we've ever received in the gala's four-year history."
   Obligation to the community
   Jerry Kane, president of the company his father started, said his parents' donation speaks to their sense of obligation to community.
   "First, let me say that none of this should detract from this year's honorees, Chris and Robert," Jerry Kane said. "They are perfect examples of volunteerism. And of course, the Volunteer Center has been a crucible and incubator of volunteerism in our community.
   "Having said that, this is so consistent of how my own parents feel so blessed. This country has given them so much. If they can in some small way feel they are contributing something back, they couldn't do any less. My parents are special and private people, modest and humble. They don't do these things for the notoriety. That would be inconsistent with the way they quietly do things. They simply feel giving this gift is in tribute to the right people and for the right organization.
   "That's who my folks are."
   Tickets are $50 per person. For information, call 887-8282.
  
 

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